On Sunday I've been to a concert of Anouar Brahem Trio. Himself on oud (aka some sor of a tunisian/arab guitar), piano and accordion. Brilliant. The soloes were impressive and the guys showed their skills. Personally I was blown away by the accordion guy who played a vew minutes' solo with lots of techniques. However, they all were quite good.

Apart from skill, the best bits were when they were anjoying themselves, and that was with the predominant arabic music too. There were moments when they played "by the book" and that was just ok.

Anyway, he's worth a listen for people looking for jazz and arabic/french influences (although some bits are just glued together).

-- This is a really old post published originally on my blogspot blog